ML uses this

I stole this idea from USESTHIS.com so go ahead and steal my stealing. I think it's massively fun when you don't lust over the Apple stuff like all but two of the inerviews on there do. Also, you may finally get to understand which machine I'm talking about when I mention my various computers.

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO

I am Aberinkulas, a blogger by night and a student by day, currently on summer vacation, working his tail end off.

WHAT HARDWARE ARE YOU USING

My main machine (aka Tycho): My campus forces all students to rent a laptop. I chose the Toshiba R10 (Core 2 Duo E9300, 4 GB of RAM, 160 GB hard drive, GeForce Quadro 150M, 14.1 inch screen). It's a lot of power that I don't need, sure, but it uses under 20 watts.

My desktop (aka Durandal): A custom built computer using parts that I picked up in various thrift stores, friends houses and Newegg if necessary. It has a 2.5 GHz Intel Pentium E5200, 1 GB of RAM, a GeForce 210 with 512 MB of RAM, a 320 GB hard drive, and a 1280 by 1024 monitor. The hard drive, monitor, power supply and chassis were all leftover parts from other computers that I got for free; thus, the computer cost me less than $150 to build.

The graphics card has HDMI and DVI ports, so it also functions as a good media center.

My backup (aka Leela): An old HP Pavilion 533w. I originally got it from a relative that had it bogged down in viruses and Windows ME; I took it and made it my computer for several years. It has an 2.0 GHz Intel Celeron Northwood processor, 1 GB of RAM (originally 256 MB), an 80 GB hard drive, integrated Intel graphics, and the same monitor as my main machine.

My MP3 Players: A Sansa Clip+ with Rockbox installed.

Other: A 320 GB portable hard drive, the brand of which I constantly forget. I also have various flash drives that usually have a Linux distro on them.

I also have a Playstation 2 that I play games and watch old DVDs on sometimes. We have a family owned Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii that I mess with occasionally.

AND WHAT SOFTWARE

The laptop is running Debian 6.0. Both desktops are both running Ubuntu Linux 10.04 LTS in varied forms. I use either Gnome or a straight command line.

The main desktop has a Windows 7 professional installation that I got for free through MSDNAA and use for the occasional game.

For web browsing, Firefox. For music and video, Potamus or VLC, sometimes Rhythmbox for the iPod nano. For text, Gedit. That covers the majority of my computer use; the rest of the things I do on computers are accomplished by random command line programs in Linux (like the glorious download manager Axel or the torrenting program rtorrent).

I strive for portability in all software and data; therefore, all text is saved as plain text files. Music is encoded in MP3 using LAME, though I use FLAC or OGG sometimes.

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR DREAM SETUP

I've got it right now.

Well, okay, I wish I had a Linux compatible Wi-fi card for the desktops. But hunting for the card is half the fun!

But, all joking aside, I want to keep using this for years. I designed the desktop to be low power consumption, compatible with Linux (and Windows if needed), and easy to replace broken components. There's simply no reason why I can't stay here forever, and you bet that I want to!